Archive for August 17th, 2007

A Ukranian doctor (operating out of a health spa) recommends a glass of wine three times a day. With its mix of herbs and occasional vodka, the stuff looks positively viscous – courtesy of the BBC. Recommended for all those stock traders who manage to weather the current storms (probably not such a good idea for those who don’t).

“has rocketed. In the mid 90s when the original Pentium processor was introduced, the average computer system could work with a 130/140 watt power supply, which is much lower that it is today,” said Scott Richards of computer component manufacturer Antec. “The processor was probably 15 watts of consumption and the graphics cards was about 10 watts of consumption. Then you had your hard drive and your floppy drive, so even given the 10 or 20 percent headroom you need to operate the computer you could easily do a 130/140 watt power supply. Today we are selling power supply units at 1,200 watts.”

– Chris Long, writing on BBC Online’s Click website. If you’re hosting, or thinking of setting up, a network, and interested in how both to economise on costs as well as maximise resource efficiency, you would do well to look at the Ndiyo (meaning ‘yes’ in Swahili) Project.

One of the many ‘tableaux’ that provided a starting point for another improvisation. Taken last night at the Liberty Bar in Camden with my mobile phone’s camera. The show’s on for two more nights, and you’re invited to take a news story (personal or public) along…

Taken yesterday night with my mobile phone’s camera in a darkened room. This one’s of an improvisation around a news item (that I understand to be fictitious!) about the Catholic Church’s first IVF baby… The Fools are in action at the Camden’s Liberty Bar, 100 Camden High Street in North London, UK, for two more nights, Friday 17th and Saturday 18th, at 9pm – tickets £7.50. Good value.

Another one from The Fool Effect; they’re lots of fun, very engaging, and dynamic; they had us all up and dancing at the end! (Paul and Liam in this photo were evoking news of the climate action camp at Heathrow! Taken yesterday night with my mobile phone’s camera, in a light-depleted room.) You can see the Fools in action at the Camden’s Liberty Bar, 100 Camden High Street in North London, UK, for two more nights, Friday 17th and Saturday 18th, at 9pm – tickets £7.50.

The Fool Effect present…. The 9 O’clock Nose……………………………… HAVE YOU GOT NEWS FOR US? The Fool Effect clowns take stories from the daily news, local and personal sources offered by their audiences each night and re-interpret them with the clown’s playfulness, irreverence and insight. The shows are an escapist feast presented with colour and style revealing another layer to the art of the clown that leaves the circus behind. The Fool Effect have been developing their improvised shows for more than a year and have all been trained in the Nose to Nose style of clowning. This gaggle of clowns bring with them a wealth of experience from touring theatre, new circus, storytelling, puppetry, mime and physical theatre, to auctioneering, DIY car mechanics, yoga, meditation, cement rendering and the making of yoghurt.

Believe it or not, Paul and Terry in this photo were evoking the news of the day about climate change tipping points – already blogged about; Terry was the ‘red-hot’ melting Greenland ice sheet! So if you’re in London without anything planned on either Friday 17th and Saturday 18th, at 9pm, I’d recommend the Fools! They’re in action at the Liberty Bar, 100 Camden High Street in North London, UK, for two more nights, tickets £7.50.

…between two and nine times more carbon emissions are avoided by trapping carbon in trees and forest soil than by replacing fossil fuels with biofuels. Around 40% of Europe’s agricultural land would be needed to grow biofuel crops to meet the 10% fossil fuel substitution target. That demand on arable land cannot be met in the EU or the US, say the scientists, so is likely to shift the burden on land in developing countries. The National Farmers Union said 20% of Britain’s agricultural land could be used to grow biofuels by 2010. However, the researchers say reforesting the land would be a better way to reduce emissions. Biofuels look good in climate change terms from a Western perspective, said Dr Spracklen, but globally they actually lead to higher carbon emissions. “Brazil, Paraguay, Indonesia among others have huge deforestation programmes to supply the world biofuel market”, he said. The researchers say the emphasis should be placed on increasing the efficiency of fossil fuel use and moving to carbon-free alternatives such as renewable energy.